In The Shadows
by Shadow Vivian
Summary: As Peach's living soul deteriorates, Mario searches for a way to bring back the Peach he knows and loves. Bowser knows more then he's letting on. MarioxPeach or BowserxPeach..could be either yet.
1. Chapter 1

**In the Shadows.**

**Summery**: As Peach's living soul deteriorates Mario has to find a way to bring back the happy Princess he knows and loves. Bowser knows more then he's letting on – What's he up to?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own these characters, I am just merely making them do what I want them to do at my ever whim. Also I am not making any money out of this I am merely doing it for my own entertainment.

**Chapter 1**

In the darkest corner of the Mushroom Kingdom, a place so untouched by happiness that even the bravest of Mushroom folk dared not pass, a shadow of a being sat in their tower. For in the darkest corner of the Kingdom stood a magnificent castle with a strong tower. It is often said in Mushroom folklore that a shadow lives there. A sad solemn shadow that strives to break out into the sunlight. The shadow was once a part of a living creature but was stolen by an evil tyrant.

It is said that and evil tyrant watched over the living soul, who was a mere child at the time. Watching her as she tried to hide her jealousy in front of those who counted as friends. The more the jealously developed inside of that child the more the tyrant could see the bitterness in her eyes. The tyrant its self knew what jealousy could do. He too had been jealous once. The tyrant saw how the jealous anger would become powerful one day and decided it was a power he could use to his advantage.

The tyrant consulted his servant, who was well trained in dark magic. The servant told him of a spell which could take the anger and the jealousy and turn it into a raging force of terror. The tyrant's attention was quickly engaged. If he had this Childs powerful anger and used it, he could have enough power to engulf the whole Mushroom Kingdom into darkness.

The servant drew up some plans in order to take the anger from within the child. It was only a matter of days before the Tyrant would possess the ability to make the Mushroom Kingdom a dark and tragic place.

The child was easily located. She was on a small white bridge in a quiet part of the Kingdom. She was crying. Her long blonde hair covering her face which was soaked with tears. She didn't want to be ugly inside any more. She wanted to be a nice girl but it was hard. Her friend Daisy gave her no credit and she wished she could be like Daisy. She was terribly jealous of Daisy and it drove her mad inside. She was too busy wallowing in self-pity that she failed to notice a small turtle creature descend upon her.

"Oh you poor, poor child..." Came a whisper from behind her. The blonde girl turned round in surprise. The turtle like creature had a crooked spine and long grey hair. The little girl had never seen anything so peculiar in all her life.

"Why so sad?" Asked the turtle creature curiously. The little girl knew better then to talk to strangers and said nothing. The turtle smiled a crooked smile.

"Eats you away inside doesn't it my dear? That feeling inside you wont go away," The turtle said in an understanding voice.

"I don't know what you mean," The girl sniffed. Her bright blue eyes dazzling in the sunlight.

"I can take it away you know. Peach I can help," The turtle simpered. Peach was taken a back. How did this turtle know her name?

"How do you know my-" She started to ask.

"My sweet poor child. Everyone knows your name and everyone knows your problem with Daisy... It's so obvious," He replied in a faint whisper. Peach felt sick. Everyone knew she was jealous. What would her father think?

"I can take it away and it will all be over," He said. Peach looked at him. Her tears dried up.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"My dear I am known as Raven, I help unfortunate people like you," He told her, eyeing her sharply.

"How can you help?" She asked timidly.

"One touch of this orb here my poor child and your troubles will be gone," He said brandishing an orb from out of no-where. Peach gasped in amazement. The orb was beautiful. It was like a crystal ball but with a purple wispy substance inside it. It had Peach mesmerized.

"What do you want in return?" She asked as she kept her eye on the orb.

"Oh my child! Think nothing of it, my princess. I don't want anything in return," The turtle waved his hand. Peach nodded and then agreed.

"Oh and one more thing...once you touch it that part of you belongs to me and you will forget this ever happened," He told her with a small smile on his face. Peach still stared at the orb and remained sure that she was going to do it.

"Touch the orb then my sweet," The turtle said as she held out the orb. The small girl, known as Peach placed both her dainty hands on to the orb. The orb shone brightly as soon as she made contact with it. She closed her eyes in fright and felt all the horrid feelings vanish from her body. As soon as it ended Peach felt exhausted and fell to the ground with a small feeble gasp. The turtle clicked his fingers and his appearance changed. He now had no hair and black glassed, wearing a purple outfit. He gave one almighty cackle and disappeared into thin air, taking the orb with him.

A kindly passer by found the unconscious child and returned her to her father, the King. No one was any the wiser of what had taken place and Peach never had any recollection of her jealousy for Daisy. They both grew up good friends and became well loved in their respective kingdoms. Peach never had a horrid thought again.

As for the tyrant, you might wonder. Well he did indeed get Peach's anger in a different form. But not all went according to plant. He did receive the orb from his servant. However he didn't expect the power of the orb to be overwhelming. The anger became a magic force, to strong for him to handle. The anger inside broke out and became a shadow of Peach. Just a blank black shape full of her utmost bitterness and spite. The shadow reach out and touched the tyrant. The magic of the shadow was so powerful to touch that the tyrant transformed into a hideous creature. He took the form of a reptile and became known as Bowser King of the Koopa's. In touching the shadow it wasn't only his appearance that was affected. A little bit of the bitterness transferred over to him and over the years that grew until he had no love for anyone or anything, except Peach. They now had a connection that she was not aware of.


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome back for the second instalment of 'In the Shadows'. I don't own any of the characters and so on and so forth. I only own the plot.

Chapter 2.

Over the years the darkest corner of the Mushroom Kingdom remained more or less unchanged. The townsfolk still refused to go anywhere near the place and the clouds that hung over it still remained full of anger and spite. The only difference now was that the castle that stood in the centre of the area stood even more crooked.

On the other side of town, a magnificent white castle stood. It was the polar opposite to the Peach looked at it from her bedroom window, shuddering, as she suddenly felt cold. There was something about that place that gave her the creeps. It was now nearing nighttime and she was about to settle down for the night, when her eyes flickered over towards a small street near by.

She could have sworn she'd saw a dark figure trot across the street. When she looked again there was nothing.

"You're just over doing it, Peach," She told herself sensibly.

Before she turned round to face her bed she looked out of her window one last time. This time her eyes came to rest on a humble house not too far away. She smiled to herself as she looked at its white walls topped with a red roof. Sighing to herself happily she thought of her beloved, Mario.

She moved her self away from the window and went to bed. She settled down in her cosy comfortable bed and quickly slipped off into a peaceful sleep.

"Peach…." Came a soft female voice.

Peach turned over in her sleep. Murmuring something unintelligible.

"Peach…." The voice sounded again. This time it sounded more playful in a childish voice.

Peach suddenly woke up and sat upright. She yawned and glanced over at her clock. It was three in the morning. Peach moaned to herself and layback down closing her eyes.

"Peach…." This time Peach heard the voice. Her eyes snapped open and she listened out into the darkness. She heard the voice again but it was coming from outside. She began to reason with herself and concluded that it must be Daisy. Pulling herself out of her bed she walked over to her window.

Looking out of her window she saw the black figure that she saw before looking up into her window. Well, at least she assumed it was looking up into her window.

"Peachy…." The playful childish voice called out again.

Peach looked at it and realised that it wasn't Daisy. She didn't know who it was and it nerved her a little. She blinked and looked again. The figure was gone.

A little puzzled, Peach returned to bed, but no matter how hard she tried she just could not get back to sleep. The voice she kept hearing repeated its self in her head. It was what turned out to be a long night.

The next morning, Peach met up with Mario and she told him about the figure and the voice. He didn't know what to say to her but told her not to worry.

"It knows my name…" Peach said with a shudder.

"Yeah but Peach... everyone knows your name, you are the Princess of this Kingdom," Mario reasoned. Peach smiled, he was right. She gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek and everything felt all right again.

"I hope you're always around to make sense of my life," Peach sighed as she rested her head on Mario's shoulder.

"Don't worry Peach. We'll be together always," Mario reassured her.

"Oh my gosh!" Peach cried out as she thought of something else. Mario looked at her in surprise and asked her what was wrong now.

"What if it was Bowser JR again? You know…like in Isle Delfino," Peach said fearfully.

"Peach… seriously, stop with the paranoia. It was probably someone playing a practical joke on you," Mario told her. Peach looked at him with fear in her eyes. He sighed in frustration.

"Okay, okay. If it makes you feel any better, I will stop at the castle tonight," He said shaking his head.

Later on the day, Mario had indeed fetched a few necessary items that he would need during his stay in the castle. He had left Luigi a number to call him on should he need anything and now he was ready to head over to the castle.

Once he'd got there, he walked straight into the middle of a row between Peach and Toadsworth.

"But…there was someone outside my window calling my name. I don't want to take the chance. You do trust my judgement don't you?" Peach said fluttering her eyelashes. Mario could tell that Toadsworth wasn't overly happy with something, but Peach would get her way. She always did when she fluttered her eyelashes.

"I do trust you my dear…but…oh fine, he can stay in your room. But only for tonight!" Toadsworth gave in to Peach, who smiled broadly.

Toadsworth huffed and stalked off. Peach whirled round to see Mario.

"Oh Mario! You're here!" She squealed in obvious joy.

"What's up with Toadsworth?" Mario asked, even though he knew.

"Oh, he didn't want you to use the fold out bed in my room. But I figured I'd be safer if you did," Peach explained. Mario nodded.

After standing there for a brief period Peach lead him and his things off towards her bedroom. When they got there Mario's eyes hurt. The room was pink. Very pink and Mario wanted to through up, all the girliness was enough to make him sick.

"You like my room?" Peach asked hopefully. Mario nodded; words could not describe how he felt about her room. It was getting dark by time Mario had mastered how to set up the unfolding bed. It was such a task and Peach was no help, she just kept on laughing at him.

"Erm it's getting late, so I'm going to get some sleep. I'll be right here if you need me," Mario told Peach who had calmed down from laughing. She nodded and went into her on suite to get ready for bed. By time she had returned Mario was asleep. Peach smiled at him and then went to sleep in her bed.

The night started out peaceful and without incident until Mario woke up. He woke up because he became cold; he sat up and glanced around the room. Everything seemed unusually dark.

"I'm coming…" Came Peach's soft voice. Mario looked over at her bed; she was still asleep. Scratching his head, he figured she was just talking in her sleep. He lay back down and tried to get some more sleep.

"I'm coming to you…. it wont be long now…" Her voice spoke again.

"Peach?" Mario said.

"We are the very same Peach. Come to me…. come to me," Came a third voice. A childlike female voice. Mario sat up straight and scanned the room. He looked over at the window and noticed that it was open and the curtain was flapping about furiously. He got out of bed and walked over to the window. There was no wind outside; all the trees stood calm and it confused Mario. He shut the window and looked outside. The creepy castle in the distance stood out in the moonlight. There was something odd about that place.

After pushing thoughts of the castle to one side, he turned round ready to head back to bed, when he saw Peach. She was sat up and was staring at the window. Her face vacant and her eyes dark.

"Peach?" Mario asked, but she didn't answer.

"Peach, are you awake?" he asked, feeling a little startled.

"I'm coming, back to you…" Peach whispered in an odd strained voice. Mario knew Peach wasn't awake so he walked over to her and shook her.

"Wha… what? Mario? What's wrong?" Came the scared voice of Peach. Mario let go of her.

"You were saying weird stuff Peach. What were you dreaming of?" Mario asked worried.

"I can't remember," Peach said honestly.

They stayed up talking to the early hours of the morning. Peach was a little concerned by Mario, who remained reluctant to go to sleep. Eventually their tiredness caught up with them and they both went back to sleep on Peach's bed. Nothing else disturbed them…. For the time being.


End file.
